Why I am not making my free ebooks available on Amazon Kindle (and Google Books)
Two persons have asked for Kindle versions of my free ebooks (I now have two of them :-) ).
The issue I have is the indemnity clause that I have to sign (online signature) if I sign up for Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP).
Here's a great easy to understand guide to the KDP legal contract: https://www.allianceindependentauthors.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Annotated-KDP-Contract.pdf.
Points 30 & 31 from the guide part (right hand side of document) say:
30. This means that if Amazon or
anyone else on the list is sued
because any of the statements in
(a) through (e) are incorrect, or you
otherwise breach the contract, you
will be obligated to pay the attorneys
and all costs and damages for
everyone on their list.
31. They will hire their own attorneys,
and you will pay their attorneys if you
breach the contract.
--- end small extract from guide ---
(a) through (e) includes copyright violation, defamation and anything that is deemed illegal with respect to the published book.
Now I have ensured that my books, to the best of my knowledge, follow copyright laws in India (and what I understand of USA copyright laws) and any criticism in my books are within freedom of speech laws of India (and perhaps USA as well though I have not checked in detail).
If there is a legal suit against my books in India, I am confident of successfully defending myself in such a suit.
Now I had to online sign a similar indemnity clause with Pothi.com but that's a Bangalore based not-mega company and I limit my paperback books to be sold only in India.
Amazon, on the other hand, is a ***mega*** company. If I sign the indemnity clause with Amazon then I open myself up to paying their lawyer's fees (which will be a big sum for me) for any legal issues anybody may bring against my book (even frivolous legal issues), in USA and wherever the book is made available on Kindle. That sort of financial risk with a mega company like Amazon is quite scary for me. I don't want to stick my neck out so much. Therefore I do not put up my ebooks on Amazon Kindle.
I have the same issue with Google Books. So I don't put it up on that platform either.
Note that, as far as I know, social media platforms do ***not*** ask users to sign such indemnity clause contracts.
What I need to explore though is creating Kindle versions of my ebook which can be easily read on a Kindle device. Perhaps the Kindle version can be downloaded from websites other than Amazon Kindle and then read comfortably on a Kindle device.
======================================================
An older blog post of mine on the same matter in Nov. 2018: The scary and risky, warranty and indemnity clauses in publisher agreements for authors; Unknown and less known authors are typically forced to accept it, http://ravisiyer.blogspot.com/2018/11/the-scary-and-risky-warranty-and.html.
[I thank www.allianceindependentauthors.org and have presumed that they will not have any objections to me sharing the above small extract from their website on this post which is freely viewable by all, and does not have any financial profit motive whatsoever.]
The issue I have is the indemnity clause that I have to sign (online signature) if I sign up for Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP).
Here's a great easy to understand guide to the KDP legal contract: https://www.allianceindependentauthors.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Annotated-KDP-Contract.pdf.
Points 30 & 31 from the guide part (right hand side of document) say:
30. This means that if Amazon or
anyone else on the list is sued
because any of the statements in
(a) through (e) are incorrect, or you
otherwise breach the contract, you
will be obligated to pay the attorneys
and all costs and damages for
everyone on their list.
31. They will hire their own attorneys,
and you will pay their attorneys if you
breach the contract.
--- end small extract from guide ---
(a) through (e) includes copyright violation, defamation and anything that is deemed illegal with respect to the published book.
Now I have ensured that my books, to the best of my knowledge, follow copyright laws in India (and what I understand of USA copyright laws) and any criticism in my books are within freedom of speech laws of India (and perhaps USA as well though I have not checked in detail).
If there is a legal suit against my books in India, I am confident of successfully defending myself in such a suit.
Now I had to online sign a similar indemnity clause with Pothi.com but that's a Bangalore based not-mega company and I limit my paperback books to be sold only in India.
Amazon, on the other hand, is a ***mega*** company. If I sign the indemnity clause with Amazon then I open myself up to paying their lawyer's fees (which will be a big sum for me) for any legal issues anybody may bring against my book (even frivolous legal issues), in USA and wherever the book is made available on Kindle. That sort of financial risk with a mega company like Amazon is quite scary for me. I don't want to stick my neck out so much. Therefore I do not put up my ebooks on Amazon Kindle.
I have the same issue with Google Books. So I don't put it up on that platform either.
Note that, as far as I know, social media platforms do ***not*** ask users to sign such indemnity clause contracts.
What I need to explore though is creating Kindle versions of my ebook which can be easily read on a Kindle device. Perhaps the Kindle version can be downloaded from websites other than Amazon Kindle and then read comfortably on a Kindle device.
======================================================
An older blog post of mine on the same matter in Nov. 2018: The scary and risky, warranty and indemnity clauses in publisher agreements for authors; Unknown and less known authors are typically forced to accept it, http://ravisiyer.blogspot.com/2018/11/the-scary-and-risky-warranty-and.html.
[I thank www.allianceindependentauthors.org and have presumed that they will not have any objections to me sharing the above small extract from their website on this post which is freely viewable by all, and does not have any financial profit motive whatsoever.]
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